Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 May;155(5):823-8.
doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2008.01.019. Epub 2008 Mar 5.

The genetic response to short-term interventions affecting cardiovascular function: rationale and design of the Heredity and Phenotype Intervention (HAPI) Heart Study

Braxton D Mitchell  1 , Patrick F McArdle, Haiqing Shen, Evadnie Rampersaud, Toni I Pollin, Lawrence F Bielak, Cashell Jaquish, Julie A Douglas, Marie-Hélène Roy-Gagnon, Paul Sack, Rosalie Naglieri, Scott Hines, Richard B Horenstein, Yen-Pei C Chang, Wendy Post, Kathleen A Ryan, Nga Hong Brereton, Ruth E Pakyz, John Sorkin, Coleen M Damcott, Jeffrey R O'Connell, Charles Mangano, Mary Corretti, Robert Vogel, William Herzog, Matthew R Weir, Patricia A Peyser, Alan R Shuldiner
Affiliations

The genetic response to short-term interventions affecting cardiovascular function: rationale and design of the Heredity and Phenotype Intervention (HAPI) Heart Study

Braxton D Mitchell et al. Am Heart J. 2008 May.

Abstract

Background: The etiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is multifactorial. Efforts to identify genes influencing CVD risk have met with limited success to date, likely because of the small effect sizes of common CVD risk alleles and the presence of gene by gene and gene by environment interactions.

Methods: The HAPI Heart Study was initiated in 2002 to measure the cardiovascular response to 4 short-term interventions affecting cardiovascular risk factors and to identify the genetic and environmental determinants of these responses. The measurements included blood pressure responses to the cold pressor stress test and to a high salt diet, triglyceride excursion in response to a high-fat challenge, and response in platelet aggregation to aspirin therapy.

Results: The interventions were carried out in 868 relatively healthy Amish adults from large families. The heritabilities of selected response traits for each intervention ranged from 8% to 38%, suggesting that some of the variation associated with response to each intervention can be attributed to the additive effects of genes.

Conclusions: Identifying these response genes may identify new mechanisms influencing CVD and may lead to individualized preventive strategies and improved early detection of high-risk individuals.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure I
Figure I
Recruitment of subjects into the HAPI Heart Study
Figure II
Figure II
Schema of HAPI Heart Study intervention schedules
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Zdravkovic S, Wienke A, Pedersen NL, Marenberg ME, Yashin AI, de Faire U. Heritability of death from coronary heart disease: a 36-year follow-up of 20 966 Swedish twins. J Intern Med. 2002;252:247–54. - PubMed
    1. Wienke A, Herskind AM, Christensen K, Skytthe A, Yashin AI. The heritability of CHD mortality in danish twins after controlling for smoking and BMI. Twin Res Hum Genet. 2005;8:53–59. - PubMed
    1. Marenberg ME, Risch N, Berkman LF, Floderus B, de Faire U. Genetic susceptibility to death from coronary heart disease in a study of twins. N Engl J Med. 1994;330:1041–46. - PubMed
    1. Hawe E, Talmud PJ, Miller GJ, Humphries SE. Family history is a coronary heart disease risk factor in the Second Northwick Park Heart Study. Ann Hum Genet. 2003;67:97–106. - PubMed
    1. Greenland P, Knoll MD, Stamler J, Neaton JD, Dyer AR, Garside DB, et al. Major risk factors as antecedents of fatal and nonfatal coronary heart disease events. JAMA. 2003;290:891–97. - PubMed

Publication types